Fully vaccinated New Zealanders will find it easier to come home from January 2022, with foreign nationals to follow from April onwards, as the Government removes the requirement for MIQ for most travellers.
However, travellers who do not require MIQ will still need to self-isolate for seven days.
“We always said we’d open in a controlled way, and this started with halving the time spent in MIQ to seven days. Retaining a seven-day isolate at home period for fully vaccinated travellers is an important phase in the reconnecting strategy to provide continued safety assurance. These settings will continue to be reviewed against the risk posed by travellers entering New Zealand,” COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said.
Further details on how self-isolation will be implemented will be made available in December, and include guidance on how people can travel from their arrival airport to their location of self-isolation and requirements for the places where they can self-isolate.
The border will open in three steps and all travellers not required to go into MIQ will still require:
- a negative pre-departure test
- proof of being fully vaccinated
- a passenger declaration about travel history
- a day 0/1 test on arrival
- a requirement to self-isolate for seven days, and
- a final negative test before entering the community
Opening stages for travellers who can enter New Zealand without going into MIQ:
- Step 1 – opening to fully vaccinated New Zealand citizens and those residence-class visa holders and other eligible travellers from Australia from 11.59 pm on 16 January 2022 (provided they have been in Australia or New Zealand for the past 14 days)
- Step 2 – opening to fully vaccinated New Zealand citizens and those residence-class visa holders and other eligible travellers from all but Very High-Risk countries, from 11.59pm Sunday 13 February.
- Step 3 – opening to fully vaccinated foreign nationals (possibly staged by visa category), from 30 April onwards.
Important! Unvaccinated people, as well as those who come from high-risk countries, will continue to be required to undergo isolation in quarantine facilities for 7 days, followed by 3 days of self-isolation at home.
The list of Very High-Risk countries will depend on the statistics of morbidity, mortality and vaccination rates. However, the Very High-Risk classification for Indonesia, Fiji, India, Pakistan and Brazil is to be removed in early December and travellers from these countries will be able to enter New Zealand on the same basis as travellers from most other countries.
The Source: beehive.govt.nz
